AN HOUR WITH 




TiaiEi 







msM^ 



e%^!P^© 







BY AN AMERICAN. 



m 



INTO. 



The American News Company. Agents. 



AN HOUR WITH 

\ 

THE 

AMERICAN HEBREW. 

INCLUDING 

REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER'S SERMON 

ON "JEW AND GENTILE;" BEN J. F. 

BUTLER'S SPEECH BEFORE 

THE HEBREW FAIR 

AT BOSTON. 

ALSO, REMARKS ON THE HILTON-SELIGMAN 
AFFAIR, AND THE LATE MISUNDER- 
^ STANDING AT MANHAT- 

V TAN BEACH. 



HERBERT N. EATON. 



NEW YORK: ' - ^'o..lO.O.kAJC'h 

1879. .o^// 



JESSE HANBY & CO., Publisher.'' ^"^-^^ 

1879. 



THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, Agents. 






CoPTEiGHT, 1879, BY Hkrbert N, Eaton. 



I=>I=L:Klin.A.O:K]- 

« 

In bringing this little volume before the public^ 
I desire to present a simple array of facts, not 
clothed in the language of the bard; simply a 
common-sense talk. 

My opinion is, I trust, the opinion of every 
liberal-minded American, every philosophical per- 
son who sustains the equality of all men. 

Respectfully, 



THE A UTROJR. 



AN HOUR WITH 



THE 



American Hebrew. 



I^LIB'^riEI'W^. 




ROM the earliest Bible history God has 
plainly indicated his chosen people in 
the Hebrew race 
Toward this race all that forbearance, love and 
great generosity that a divine heart can alone pos- 
sess has been freely shown. 

Eelieved from task-masters by His omnipotent 
hand through miracles wonderfully divine, miracles 
so appalhng that their captors gladly released them, 
is it strange that their reputation as the chosen peo- 
ple of God should be fully established. 
In their lonely march through a barren, desolate 



6 AN HOUR WITH 

tract, with the persecuting hosts of a tyrannical 
King pressing at their rear, contemplating capture or 
destruction, when the Divine hand rolled back the 
surging waters into a mighty wall on either side, 
leaving a dry, open highway for them to pass, 
when the avenging walls dashed upon their pursu- 
ers, crushing them in its relentless grasp was not 
Divine sympathy for the Hebrew race an established 
fact? 

From the day when the Jewish people, in their re- 
ligious frenzy, crucified the Son of God history has 
its recorded pages of the persecution of that people 
in all parts of the world, and by all nations. 

But, as time rolls on, and day by day the world be- 
comes more enhghtened, the nations grow more 
and more philosophical, more democratic, people are 
awakening to the fact that the Hebrew generation 
of the present day are not to be held responsible by 
them for the sins of their forefathers. Although 
the Bible tells us that the sins of the father shall be 
visited upon the sons to the third and fourth gener- 
ations the nations are beginning to realize that they 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 7 

are not competent judges of the Hebrew people— a 
divine power holds f hem in the balance^ and in his 
hand rests the fate of the Jewish nation. 

The signal success of the Eothschilds in the Old 
World created the first great revolution in the preju- 
dice existing towards the Jews. 

That the Eothschilds wield a fabulous power in 
the Old World is an undisputed fact. For years na- 
tions hesitated to declare war, or to embark in any 
extensive enterprise without first consulting this 
great banking firm. With this power of wealth to 
back them, victory was almost assured the favored 
nation. 

At the present day matters differ little, if at all; 
the great financial wheel of the mother country still 
revolves upon its accustomed axis — Eothschild. 

This power also holds the bonds of the United 
States to an immense amount, and to it is due their 
circulation in all parts of the world. 

When the news of the indignity offered Mr. Selig- 
man, at Stewart's Saratoga, hotel reached the Eoths- 
childs, a dispatch was sent to the United States 



8 AN HOUR WITH 

Treasury, inquiring if the (our) Government indorsed 
such treatment of the Jews, and stating, if so, their 
house would never invest another dollar in our 
bonds. 

Treasurer Sherman replied discountenancing the 
action. 

We quote from the London Neivs, of June 19th, 
18Y9, the following articles regarding the Koths- 
childs: 

ROTHSCHILD'S WILL. 

" The will of the late Baron Lionel de Eothschild is 
understood to be sworn under £2,700,000. The will 
is in the handwriting of the deceased, and is dated 
July 24:, 1865, Newcourt, St. Swithin's-lane. The 
document occupies two ordinary sheets of letter pa- 
per, which were sewn together with silk and sealed. 
His sons, Sir Nathaniel de Eothschild and Mr. Alfred 
de Eothschild, are the executors of the will. The 
testator leaves to his wife £100,000, and a life inter- 
est of £50,000, arising from the houses at Frankfort 
and in London, together with the residence in Pic- 
cadilly, and the estate at Gunnersbury. A request 
is made that ^ my good wife' shaU give £10,000 to 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 9 

Jewish charities and £5,000 to others. Annuities 
(in connection with which the mother is to exercise 
discretionary power) are made in favor of sons and 
daughters; and the testator expresses a hope that 
they will be kind to their mother, who had been 
kind to them and him also. To his two brothers 
(since dead) he bequeathed a sum of £1,000 each to 
purchase something in remembrance of him — " a 
picture or anything else." The testator thanked 
God for the success and prosperity that attended 
him, and hoped the same guiding hand would direct 
his sons. Excepting the immediate members of his 
own family, above referred to, no other name or leg- 
acy is mentioned in the will. We understand that 
there are some imperfect attestation clauses in the 
will, and marginal notes intended for insertion, but 
not signed. The testator advises his sons of the 
happy unity that existed between him and his two 
brothers, to which he attributes the success of the 
firm, and hopes that the same kind feehng will con- 
tinue to maintain the position of the house." 
This from the New York Times, July 2, 1879: 
'' Since the death of Baron Lionel de Kothschild, 
the head of the London house, many of the Euro- 
pean newspapers have been speculating on the 
amount of capital, profits and general business rela- 



10 AN HOUR WITH 

tions of the great financial family. ISTobody outside 
of its members and their confidential employes has, 
we suppose, any actual knowledge of their affairs, 
although many persons claim to be informed as to 
their resources and operations. A writer in a Paris 
journal claims to be in a position to know that the 
present capital of the different Eothschild houses is 
at least $500,000,000, and that they can control as 
much more, which may be considered a pretty 
penny. Stories of the Eothschilds will always be 
told, as they will be about any and everybody 
thought to be enormously rich. After the interest 
a man has in his own money, he seems to be most 
interested in some other man's money. More idle 
tales are told of the celebrated Jewish bankers (they, 
by the by, call themselves merchants, which they 
really are) than of any other bankers, probably be- 
cause they are the wealthiest of their class. One of 
these tales, is that the Eothschilds almost never lose 
anything, which is absurd on its face, considering 
the prodigious extent of their operations. They 
lose a good deal, of necessity, because they make a 
great deal; but their profits are doubtless always in 
advance of their losses. There seems to be author- 
ity for the statement, often made, that their losses 
from depreciation in the funds and securities which 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 11 

followed the disturbance brought about in various 
European capitals by the French revolution of 1848 
reached some $40,000,000. They afterward made 
up the loss, it is asserted, which they would be very 
Hkely to do. A great advantage such houses have 
is in their colossal capital. If they have been led 
into a mistake, and it has cost them dearly, they 
can usually repair their mistake by getting on the 
other side of the market. The interests of the 
Eothschilds are well-nigh universal, and their se- 
crecy, save in open transactions, is invariably pro- 
found. Nathan Eothschild is reported to have said: 
^^ One great reason of our success is that we know 
how to hold our tongues." They are as reticent as 
the grave touching their business. After Baron 
Lionel had been dead a week, a London wag re- 
marked: '' The old Baron is just as communicative 
as ever." The time has passed, if ever it was, when 
Kings had to consult the Rothschilds before they 
could go to war, but they are still a stupendous 
power, and likely to be for generations. The recol- 
lection that the founder of the house, Meyer An- 
selm (he took the name Eothschild from the sign 
of a red shield placed over his small shop in Frank- 
fort), entered Hanover in 176 3, barefoot, with a bun- 
dle of rags on his back, is enough to prevent any 



12 AN HOUR WITH 

poor devil from despair. But it is not every man 
who has the brain of Meyer Anselm." 

In Lord Beaconsfield, of England, we find another 
prominent representative of the Jewish people. 

Settling in England (of all nations the most hos- 
tile to his race) when a poor boy, he gradually made 
his way to the head of her Parliament and became 
the greatest statesman of the age. 

With no education but that which he gained by 
his own untiring industry and application, Beacons- 
field's success borders on the miraculous. Disap- 
pointed again and again, his courage and persever- 
ance never failed him; but he struggled on, until at 
last he took his seat in Parliament. His first essay 
to speak was greeted with hisses, but nothing 
daunted, he forced his way through overwhelming 
obstacles, in the end leaving his enemies far beneath 
his notice. 

Eothschilds and Beaconsfield are of world-wide 
fame, and the Israelites may well be proud of their 
representatives. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 13 



JEWISH CHARACTERISTICS. 

I have made the Jewish character a study, both 
socially and in business, and in no society do I find 
more geniality or courtesy shown. 

Affability is a marked characteristic of the He- 
brew, to which, as I shall show you further on, is 
largely due his business success. 

A Jew cannot be otherwise than poHte, for he is 
born so. 

He dodges all corners naturally, winding grace- 
fully along and flattering every man's vanity into 
good nature. No fine mechanism but requires a 
lubricator to prevent friction. 

The sociability and studied pohteness of the Jew is 
the magic oil of his success. 

You seldom find a Jew in his place of business 
but wears a smile of satisfaction and content. 

I never called upon a Hebrew in trade but I was 
received cordially, and listened to attentively until 
a customer put in an appearance. 



14 AN HOUR WITH 

Do you think a Jew unwise enough to stop and 
talk with one while a customer needs attention? 

No! Not for a moment! 
> ut, business like, he excuses himself and goes on 
the instant to his customer. You might as well 
attempt to remove the stars from their resting-place 
as induce him to neglect a customer. 

This is the leading element of the Jewish mer- 
chant's success, for no one who enters a store to 
purchase likes to be delayed. 

I regret to say that I have seen instances of mer- 
chants neglecting a customer, while they discussed 
politics or the greenback question, to the intense 
disgust of the patron, who left the store in anger. 

The truth is, that, as a people, the Israehtes are 
full of profound sagacity, and never permit their 
passions or prejudices to interfere with their busi- 
ness. 

This is a most golden trait, and would to heaven 
they could innoculate the rest of creation with it. 
We are far too prone to muddle up business with 
friendly and social relations, and a most disastrous 
mixture it generally makes. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 15 

Other characteristics of the Jewish merchant; 
Close apphcation to business, shrewdness, persever- 
ance, caution in purchases. To the above may be 
attributed largely his business success, for in these 
really lie the achievement of success to any and all 
men, no matter what the calling. 

If you obtain the personal history of almost any 
Hebrew you may chance to meet, it will tell you of 
an early day when he came to America, ignorant of 
its customs, untaught in its language, alone among 
strangers, with perhaps a scanty surplus of five 
dollars. 

Many who landed with that amount are now the 
foundation of some of the most gigantic business 
enterprises in the United States. 

Among my personal acquaintances I could men- 
tion many who took a start and growth under even 
more unfavorable circumstances than with a cash 
balance of ^ve dollars on hand when they arrived 
in New York, who to-day command unlimited credit 
and do an immense business. 

One or two instances v^ suffice to give you an 



16 AX HOUR WITH 

idea of the prosperity of the Hebrew people settled 
in the United States. These are but samples of 
thousands of similar instances. 

One among my personal acquaintances said to me: 
'^A large proportion of your Americans are born 
with a silver spoon in their mouth. What would 
they do if they had to start as I did? " 

Upon my inquiring as to his start in America, he 
said: ^' When I landed in New York I knew no one; 
I was totally ignorant of the English language. I 
had not a nickel to my name. 

^^I begged of the steamer's captain the privilege 
of sleepmg on the boat for two nights. 

'*I had a small amount of provisions — tea, saus- 
ages and sea-biscuit — but no money. 

'^I wandered up and down the city all day. I 
could not talk. I could not understand. I could get 
no work. 

'^The next morning, I thought if I could dispose 
of my provisions, I might try to peddle. 

" Before noon I succeeded in selling my stock of 
provisions for one dollar and twenty-five cents, after 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. IT 

which I found a Httle notion and fancy-goods store, 
where I invested my limited capital (with the ex- 
ception of ten cents, which I kept to buy bread) and 
started out to try my luck. When I got into a 
house, the lady would ask me to shut the door. I 
could not understand her, so she was obliged to shut 
it herself. I could hold up my little stockings and 
say ^ten cents is price,' no more. In this way I 
went on from house to house, and my sales were 
nearly two dollars the first day. I replenished my 
stock the next day, and so I kept on until I could 
make two, three and five dollars in a single day. 
For a long time I kept down my living expenses to 
ten or fifteen cents a day. Bread and water will 
keep a man from starving." 

To-day this man has two large stores and unlim- 
ited credit. Does not such a man deserve some 
credit for perseverance and energy? I will only re- 
late one other instance of Hebrew success. This 
man landed in New York penniless, but a Hebrew 
friend loaned him ten dollars to start Hfein the new 
world. He commenced peddling in the suburbs of 



18 AN HOUR WITH 

New York, his pack daily growing larger until he 
thought to emigrate to the more lucrative fields of 
the west. He did not take a palace car on the route, 
but simply peddled his way through to Illinois, 
where he continued to dispense his wares among 
the farmers. Finally, opening a store among his 
farming friends, he is to-day one of the most prom- 
inent business men of a flourishing city, owning 
three large stores and worth half a million of dol- 
lars and holding the respect and esteem of the 
community in which he resides. 

I was talking with a business man of a certain 
city as regards business and its prospects in that sec- 
tion. He said, ^' for four years trade has dragged, 
no profit in it. Store rents are too high for the 
times." I asked him why he did not demand a re- 
duction in rent. ^^If I should move out" said he, 
'^some Jew would take this store on the moment, 
and get rich here. I cannot understand the secret 
of their success. " 

I said to him, "you must put the same energy 
into it that he does. They are always alive to 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 19 

chances, for buying goods in job lots, always aim- 
ing to get a good profit on every article sold." 

One thing is certain, when a man puts his capital, 
brains and muscle into a business, it is his own 
fault if he don't make a success. If he fails to do so 
you may conclude that there is a reasonable cause 
for such failure. Either in lack of knowing how to 
do business, or in lack of apphcation to said business. 

Lacking one of these essential points is enough to 
produce disaster. 

It is a practice of many who have failed to make 
a mark in hfe, to assume an air of injured inno- 
cence, and berate Providence for conferring honor 
and success upon energetic men, while they who 
possess real merit are passed by. 

Merit without the necessary self-reliance and pre- 
tension, is left in the lurch, while the commonplace 
man who possesses a fair degree of assurance, rides 
smoothly on. Eeal abihty is always in good demand, 
provided it does not conceal itself under a bushel. 
Frugality is another leading attribute of the He 
brew. 



20 AN HOUR WITH 

He does not invest largely in real estate, but places 
his money where it can be readily handled. 

Stocks and bonds which can be instantly con- 
verted into cash, are his favorite investments. 

The Jew is not, as a rulf^, of a speculative nature. 
He prefers to make his fortune by hard work, and 
unceasing application, rather than invoke the aid of 
chance. 

An Israelite will never risk a good thing upon the 
chance of obtaining a better. He believes that '^a 
bird in the hand is worth two in the bush," and 
while with one hand he cautiously prospects the 
bush for the more valuable bird, his other hand still 
retains a firm grasp upon the humbler specimen of 
the feathered tribe. Perchance the bird eludes his 
grasp, and perches upon a limb within easy reach- 
ing distance, where he may be readily captured by 
the use of both hands. Nevertheless he is too shrewd 
to release his grasp upon the more humble bird. 

If a Jew makes a dollar, he lays by at least, one- 
half that amount, safely. Perhaps more. This is 
not an occurrence, but an almost i miversal rule of 
this people. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 21 

Carlyle says: '' Whoever has sixpence is sovereign 
over all men to the extent of that sixpence, com- 
mands cooks to feed him, philosophers to teach him, 
kings to mount guard over him to the extent of that 
sixpence." 

This truth seems to be indehbly impressed upon 
the mind of the Hebrew. The principles of frugal- 
ity are inherited, and increase rather than diminish 
with age. 

The Israehtes are necessarily a money-getting peo- 
ple. From the earhest ages of Bible history we 
read of the treasures amassed in the temple at Jeru- 
salem—vases, urns, trappings of armor and many 
other articles of sohd gold and silver, studded with 
precious stones and decorated with engraved designs 
of the most exquisite workmanship were collected 
in countless numbers. It is estimated that the treas- 
ure accumulated in the temple at the time of the 
destruction of Jerusalem comprised over two-thirds 
the discovered wealth of the world. 

Jewelry takes its name from this people, and with 
it they decorate themselves to a great extent. Their 



22 AN HOUR WITH 

love for the beautiful and valuable is a peculiar at- 
tribute which has descended with them from gener- 
ation to generation. 

It being a rule that a Jew should be rich, it follows 
that without money he is not so highly esteemed 
among his own people. 

Everybody expects to see a Jew become rich. 

It is safe to say, that within the next century two- 
thirds the wealth of the United States wiU be in the 
hands of the American Hebrew. 

Our average American who makes a good hit and 
finds the coveted wealth rolHng in upon him is apt 
to lose his head. If he is rapidly becoming rich he 
wants everybody to know it, and takes every possi- 
ble means to convince them of that fact. His first 
move is to set up an establishment. He builds a pal- 
atial residence and surrounds it with artistic grounds; 
keeps his two-minute horses, liveried servants, 
and enters into a thousand extravagances which, 
unless haiDpily the wheel of fortune continues turn- 
ing favorably, undermines him and he suddenly de- 
scends from affluence to poverty. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 23 

The Hebrew acts upon a different plan. When 
he finds fortune smiling upon him he hes low and 
keeps his own counsel. He has no sudden desire for 
display, but is content to wait until he sees how 
long his good luck will continue. He holds to the 
motto ^^ first be sure you're right, then go ahead." 

If things continue to progress favorably, and he 
finds himself upon a solid basis, then he launches 
out and lives as elegantly as he can afford, taking 
care that he does not go beyond his income. He al- 
lows his wife and children to dress in the best of 
style; and spares no pains to make his home attrac- 
tive. 

Almost lavish in his expenditures on some points 
and correspondingly economical in others is the 
Hebrew. 

A Jew will not hesitate as long in spending a 
twenty-dollar bill as he will before investing a ^yb. 
The fact is, it is on the trivial expenses that he exer- 
cises his economy. A twenty-dollar bill may seem 
a large amount to him, but four fives amount to the 
same thing, and the continual drain of small ex- 



24: AN HOUR WITH 

penditures is what lightens a man's pocket, and soon 
verges into a habit which is not easily broken. I 
once read of an Israelite who, upon making a sale 
to a customer whose credit he knew to be good, 
made a practice of inviting the purchaser to dine 
with him. 

Perhaps the dinner would ^cost him several times 
the profit on the sale, but he did not begrudge the 
expense. 

The customer once so entertained would be very 
apt to come a2:ain, and in the end it would prove a 
good investment, yielding him a magnificent divi- 
dend. 

Colonel Ingersoll says: ^' If you have but one dol- 
lar in the world and no means of obtaining more, 
spend it like a king ; spend it as though it were a 
withered leaf and you the owner of unbounded for- 
ests." This is a very pretty and eloquent idea in 
print, but scarcely encouraging advice to a man 
placed in that embarrassing position. One could 
hardly be expected to invest his last dollar with a 
very kingly air. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 25 

I once met with an instance of this sort, but I 
think they are, Hke angels' visits, few and far be- 
tween. A young man of my acquaintance, who 
depended upon his experience as a bookkeeper for a 
Hvehhood, found himself, through the failure of the 
firm by whom he was employed, thrown upon the 
tender mercies of New York City, with a very lim- 
ited surplus of cash on hand. 

In a short time he was reduced to two dollars, 
and in debt with his landlady in the sum of fifty 
dollars. Under these circimistances he entered a 
first-class restaurant, ordered a dollar and a half 
dinner, and invested the remaining fifty cents in 
cigars 

Fortunately he soon obtained a paying position, 
where he was enabled to gratify his expensive 
tastes. 

This is but one case in a thousand, however, 
where the kingly beggar escapes the uneviable fate 
of the tramp. 

A Jew would as soon think of decapitating him- 
self as taking advantage of Mr. IngersolFs advice.. 



26 AN HOUR WITH 

His last dollar, or a portion of it, would remain in 
his possession mitil reinforced by others of its own 
denomination. 

You rarely find a beggar among this people. A 
Jew with his wits about him has no need for beg- 
ging. Nor is he inclined to brook the "majesty of 
the law " in his most despondent moments. 

He is too cautious to commit himself in that 
mamier. 

Gen. Butler says, in his speech which I quote be- 
low, that he never saw a Hebrew in the prisoners' 
dock during his forty years legal experience. 
. Would that all Americans were as wise as a ser- 
pent and as cautious as a Jew. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 27 

SPEECH OF GENERAL BUTLER 

AT THE HEBREW FAIR IN BOSTON. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I am very much obliged to you, fellow-citizens, 
for your kind, cordial and courteous greeting, and 
it is my first bomiden duty to pay my respects in 
grateful recognition of it. I am bound to believe 
that the reason why I have been so greeted by you 
is because you have found in my public career, 
whether for good or ill, that it has ever been for the 
good of all people, without distinction of race or 
condition of hfe [prolonged applause]; but, for you 
and your people and your race, there is no higher 
history among all the nations of the earth. No 
devout, sincere Christian can doubt for a moment 
the wonderful character of the Hebrew race. 
Sprung from the loins of Abraham, they were, as 
we are to-night, by our Bible and yours, God's 
chosen people, and for them he became legislator, 
guide and friend. He brought them into and out of 
Egypt by a series of miracles, showing that of them 
He expected much in the economy of His universe; 
and when He thundered from Mount Sinai, amid 



28 AN HOUR WITH 

the lightnings of that dreadful and terrible, yet 
glorious occasion to mankind, the best and highest 
code of laws ever promulgated to man, they evinced 
their divine origin, because in them were found two 
subjects treated of that have never been incorpo- 
rated in any ancient code of laws. He gave to 
Moses the great command, ' ' Take thou no usury of 
thy brother. " He gave to Moses that oversight and 
that knowledge that enabled him to embody in His 
code of laws better sanitary regulations than have 
been embodied in any code of laws since; and in all 
that remarkable career of the Jewish nation we see 
that He proposed that from that nation. His chosen 
people, should come the emanation of His plan of 
salvation to mankind, and from that nation has 
come the religion which has covered the earth with 
civilization. [Prolonged applause.] His people 
have remained together in a most remarkable man- 
ner, not as a nation — for they, for a thousand years, 
have not existed as a nation — but there has been a 
sohdarity of people in the economy of the Jewish 
race that has kept them to themselves, although 
•scattered all over the world, amid the greatest and 
most terrible persecutions for many years, almost 
ages, that would have destroyed any other nation. 
The Hebrew nation is a nation distinguished for 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 29 

three characteristics— the integrity, the thrift and 
the industry of her men, and the purity, chastity 
and domestic virtues of her women. [Loud and 
prolonged applause.] I need pay no compliment 
where none is needed. I speak from knowledge 
upon the subject. For forty years, save one, I have 
been conversant with the criminal courts of Massa- 
chusetts and many other States, and I have never 
yet had a Hebrew client as a criminal [storms of 
applause]; but you may say, that was because the 
Hebrews did not choose you for their lawyer [pro- 
longed laughter and applause]; but that is not the 
true answer, for I never yet saw a veritable Israel- 
ite in the prosoners' box for crime in my life [re- 
newed applause]; and, thinking of this matter as I 
was coming here, I met a learned judge of one of 
the highest courts of the Commonwealth, of more 
than forty years' experience at the bar and the 
bench, and I put the same question to him, and he 
said he bore witness with me to the same effect— he 
neither at the bar nor the bench had ever seen any 
Hebrew arraigned for crime. [Thunders of ap- 
plause.] 

Another fact is that the Jewish race, having re- 
mained intact for so many years, must come from 
some preordination of the Almighty, that they 



30 AN HOUR WITH 

should keep themselves to themselves to return 
again and possess the promised land after more than 
forty years, and, perhaps, centuries of wandering 
away from it; and that time, which has heen the 
(Jream of the Hebrew philosopher, the topic and 
prophecy of the Hebrew prophet, the hope of the 
Hebrew statesman, seems about to be fulfilled; for, 
under the lead of the man who to-day is the most 
powerful on earth — a single man standing out the 
central figure of all Europe — the man whose fame 
has pervaded even the school-boys' mind, so that it 
is said that when a question was put to one of them, 
'^ How is the map of Europe divided?" he replied, 
'^By Beaconsfield." [Shouts of laughter, cries of 
''Good! good!" and applause]. Under the lead of 
him, the greatest man now living, and of your race, 
a protectorate over Jerusalem was established, with 
him at the head of it. Would it not seem that the 
dream, the thought, the hope of the Hebrew states- 
man, poet, philosopher and prophet are about to be 
realized? And supremely over all, over nobles and 
kings and emperors, stand the family whose leave 
is required by kings and emperors before they can 
go to war or before they can make peace. Their 
assent must be asked to the terms proposed. No 
great route for commerce between Europe and Asia 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 31 

can be opened without the consent of that family 
who have amassed money, not for the sake of 
money alone — for their accumulations are past all 
dreams of avarice — but they are the accumulations 
of power which has made them greater than all. 
Need I call the name of the family of the Eoths- 
childs to show the most powerful family on earth 
belonging to the race of people I see before me? 
[Prolonged applause]. 

What, then, is the destiny for you and yours 
wherever you may roam? For what you are reser- 
ved belongs to the future. It is in the womb of time 
and can be known only to your great law-giver, He 
who, in his providence, has preserved your people 
for some wise purpose, unknown to mankind, and 
is only to be guessed from the great results that 
have already come from His chosen people. These 
thoughts crowd upon me, and I have to give them 
utterance. They may well present themselves to 
your mind, and I cannot see how any man of your 
race can feel otherwise than that he is the equal of 
the princes and the nobles of the earth [great ap- 
plause] ; and here in America you have that equahty 
with all other men and the opportunity of making 
yourselves what you are — a leading power in the 
state and the country — for the power of your people 



32 AN HOUR WITH 

is felt and known here, and the highest offices in the 
United States Senate and House of Eepresentatives 
have been filled by representatives of your people, 
few in comparison with the others though you may 
be; and when I remember, and you remember what 
may be in store for you, do I not do well to call 
these matters of the past to your minds, so that 
every one of these young men here may feel that he 
has a place to fill in the world — which requires all 
the industry, all the intelligence and all the good 
conduct possible, to make himself the equal of those 
of his people who have gone before him? [Pro- 
longed applause]. And I have not failed if I have 
inspired that proper and high ambition that should 
make any one of your children look upon the great 
efforts of his people, and endeavor to follow their 
good example, whether in the charity of a Monte- 
fiore, in the statesmanship of a Beaconsfield, or in 
the acquired wealth and power of the Eothschilds, 
their excellence, so great and so illustrious, that 
while each may hope, in some degree, to equal, none 
can hope to excel. [Immense applause.] 

Mr. Chairman and fellow-citizens: Allow me, 
then, with high respect for your people, with strong 
feehngs of good will to each personally for your 
kindness and attention, to bid you each and ah a 
fair good-night. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 33 

AVARICE. 

The prejudiced man says the Jew is avaricious, 
grasping, hke the miser always eagerly seeking to 
increase his gains, and carefully considering every 
cent of his expenditures. 

As there is a cause for everything, so is there a 
cause for the extraordinary greed for gain which 
exists among the Hebrews as a race. 

In olden time when the Jews, a despised and per- 
secuted people in the Oriental world, labored in the 
chains of slavery under the rule of tyrannical mas- 
ters, they were not allowed to become property 
owners themselves, but might obtain the privilege 
of cultivating the lands belonging to the Grovern- 
ment, upon the payment of an assessed tax. 

An undying hatred existed between the Jews and 
their masters. In order, therefore, the more thor- 
oughly to crush this accursed race, a most extor- 
tionate and outrageous assessment was levied upon 
them. 

The Jews have always been a prolific people. 



34 AN HOUR WITH 

Where you find a family man, you find a large, or 
at all events, a goodly number of children. 

Now, crushed and trodden upon as the Hebrews 
were by the exorbitant taxation of these Oriental 
despots, it was only by the exercise of the utmost 
economy, by the most careful consideration of every 
item of expense, however small, that he was ena- 
bled from his limited allotment of land (and the 
poorest sort of land at that) to obtain a bare liveli- 
hood — a meagre pittance, hardly sufficient to keep 
together the soul and body of himself and family. 

Necessarily, his style of living was not very ex- 
travagant ; every farthing which came into his 
possession was carefully handled, thumbed, pinched 
and invested numberless times in his mind before it 
was allowed to depart from him. For women, wine 
and riotous dissipation he had no occasion. In fact, 
a perusal of their history leads us to infer that there 
were many days when the Hebrew forefathers 
missed a large number of meals when they never 
designed to do so. 

It is not, then, to be wondered, that centuries of 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 35 

this style of living-death should make them an 
avaricious people. 

I wonder how our average American — our New 
Yorker, for instance — living on the fat of the land, 
in the whirl and rush of the great Metropohs; living 
where the one point seems to be to dash through 
life at the highest possible speed, each man strain- 
ing every nerve to lead his neighbor in the race — 
would sustain himself, if transported to the heart 
of the great western alkali plains, and there left 
with a certain portion marked out for him, and the 
injunction that a rental should be required of him, 
the third of which would be a most fabulous price 
for the whole desert. I imagine it would be a 
choice between economy and death; but on a second 
thought, I am inclined to believe that there would 
be no choice, rather a surety of a burial place. 

If my readers will take the above as an illustra- 
tion of the position in which the ancient Hebrews 
were placed, they will conclude, with me, that econ- 
omy, under these circumstances, could hardly be 
styled avarice. 



36 AN HOUR WITH 

The great object of the Jews was to hberate them- 
selves, to rise from their degraded position, and be- 
come a recognized power in the world. The inter- 
cession of a Divine Providence, aided and abetted by 
their own industry, perseverance and economy (or 
avarice, if you will still have it so) enabled them to 
throw off their bonds and take their proper posi- 
tion in the world, and to-day we find them on an 
equal footing with eath and every nation. 

It is impossible that an instinct so deeply rooted in 
the human mind, as has been the instinct of econo • 
my upon the mind of the Hebrew, should not be in- 
herited to a certain extent by the progeny of such 
mind. 

Hence we may infer that the economy of the 
ancient Hebrews, necessitated by their galling posi- 
tion, has descended in a great measure to the pres- 
ent generation. When, therefore, we encounter a 
representative of this people who is possessed with 
an undue love of money, let us take into considera- 
tion the position in which the Hebrews were once 
placed, and make due allowance for this pecuharity. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 37 

''Put yourself in his place" and view the matter 
in a different hght. 

MUSIC. 

There is one attribute of the Hebrew race in itself 
sublime — their love for music and the muses, which 
stamps them as a people of sympathetic natures and 
refined sensibilities. 

From the ancient times down to the present day 
their musical propensities have constituted a leading 
feature in the historical records of the Jews. 

A writer in one of our leading journals has haply 
remarked that were it not for the support of the 
Hebrew element in New York it is a question if its 
residents would have been favored with that high 
order of musical talent which exists at present. 

Almost every musical composer of renown has 
sprung from this race. Instance, Bach, the so-called 
''father of music;" such masters as Mendelssohn 
and Meyerbeer, who have endowed the world with 
the most wonderful musical compositions now in ex- 
istence. 



38 AN HOUR WITH 

Eubenstein, Offenbach, Wienawski and Strauss, 
the leading composers of to-day, also emanate from 
the Jewish family. 

These men have devoted their lives, talents, 
money, and everything which they valued to their 
profession. Most of them at some time in their 
lives came into possession of immense fortunes, 
which were sacrificed on the altar of music. The 
history of these men is so well known throughout 
the world that it would be superfluous for me to en- 
large upon it, suffice it to say, that Mendelssohn and 
Meyerbeer have indellibly imprinted their names in 
the musical history of the world, leaving a shining 
mark which can never be effaced. 

As for the master lights of the present day many 
productions of genius are due to them, and it is to 
be hoped that there are many more to follow. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 39 



THE JEWESS. 

She walks in beauty, like the night 
Of cloudless climes and stariy skies; 

And all that's best of dark and bright 
Meet in her aspect and her eyes . 

Thus mellowed to that tender light 
Which heaven to gaudy day denies. 

[Byron's Hebrew Melodies. 

For centuries the Hebrew woman has enjoyed the 
reputation of being the most pure and virtuous of 
her sex. 

We rarely hear of a Jewess destroying the honor 
of her household by loving unmsely. 

There are several reasons for the chastity of this 
people above all others. 

First, an inherent purity seems to be born in them; 
on this basis rest the minor virtues of the Jews. 

Second, they are possessed in a large degree of 
that faculty so rarely found and so highly prized in 
the American woman of the present day — common 
sense. 



4:0 AN HOUR WITH 

Now, common sense is a very precious gem when 
found in connection with the female sex; and as the 
value of a precious stone is regulated by the scarcity 
of the same, the reason of the great demand for 
this iDarticular gem follows obviously — scarcity. If 
a Jewish damsel indulges in a flirtation (which she 
seldom does) she knows just how far to continue 
that amusement without crossing the boundaries of 
propriety. She not only knows just how far she may 
safely go, but she never goes beyond that boundary. 
It is one thing to know where the bounds of propri- 
ety he, and quite another thing to keep within them. 

The Jewess is not of a confiding disposition; she 
is not to be deceived by a smooth tongue, or brazen- 
faced assurance, and thinks twice before she acts 
once. The habit of thinking twice before action is 
an admirable one, the cultivation of which can be 
recommended to both sexes. 

This art seems to have been almost totally lost to 
the American woman of the nineteenth century; in 
fact it would appear that the exertion of thinking 
once precludes all possibility of a second thought. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 41 

In form the Jewess stands supreme. No sharp 
corners obtrude. Symmetrical curves abound. Al- 
though we miss the ethereal, slate-pencil and pickle 
beauty, pecuhar to our American women, still an ap- 
pearance of good health is a refreshing novelty, and 
leads us to overlook this lack of the angelic style. 

Thoroughly practical and always self-possessed, 
the Jewess is a ready conversationahst and a pleas- 
ant social companion. 

Hospitality is her forte. Visitors and friends are 
always entertained with the best the house affords. 

In many ways might our American women imi- 
tate the Jewess to their advantage. 

In regard to the Hilton-Seligman affair we quote, 
by permission, from the New York Tribune : 

NO JEWS NEED APPLY, 
{Editorial New York Tribune, June, 18Y7.) 

With the merits of the personal quarrel between 
Mr. Joseph Seligman and Judge Hilton, the pubhc 
has very little to do. 



42 AN HOUE WITH 

Evidently the two gentlemen cherish a cordial 
dislike to each other, much older than the little dis- 
pute which now fixes the attention of the fashiona- 
ble world of Saratoga, and we have no desire to pry 
into the causes of it. 

The exclusion of Mr. Seligman, however, from 
Judge Hilton's hotel is a matter of general concern. 

It is understood that he applied for accommoda- 
tions at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, and 
was informed that the managers had instructions 
from Judge Hilton to receive no Jewish families. 

Mr. Hilton disclaims any prejudice against the 
'^ Israelites," but admits that he objects to '^Jews 
in the trade sense of the word," and prefers not to 
have them at his house. 

The Grand Union Hotel is intended to be a house 
where the richest and most elaborately decorated 
Christians can eat their dinners, and conduct their 
piazza flirtations, without the danger of brushing 
against anybody of the old faith, in the "trade 
sense of the word. " 

The fancies of the customers, whom the Grand 
Union wishes to attract must be respected, and hence 
the order has been given that " Jews" shall be " dis- 
couraged" whenever they apply for room. 

The method of discouragement adopted in Mr. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 43 

Seligman's case, seems to have been, to tell him 
that, being a Jew, he could not come in; and it was 
so effectual that he went away and wrote Judge 
Hilton a letter, such as he probably would not have 
written excepting mider the sting of excitement. 

Mr. Hilton is reported as explaining, that the 
''Jews," whom he dislikes, are those who attract 
pubhc attention by vulgar ostentation and a puffed- 
up vanity; an overawing disposition, a lack of those 
considerate civilities so much appreciated by good 
American society, and a general obtrusiveness that 
is frequently disgusting, and always repulsive to the 
well-bred. As these vices are quite unknown in 
' ' Christian " society we may now congratulate our- 
selves that at least one hotel in the new world will 
be a little '' paradise" of refined simplicity, and an 
academy of ''good breeding," 

We presume that the ingenuous youth of our 
country will hereafter flock to Saratoga to complete 
their education by taking lessons in "deportment" 
from the guests of the G-rand Union, flatten their 
noses against the dining-room windows in order to 
see how the " select " behave at their meals, and 
long for admission to that elegant tavern as the 
subjects of European despots aspire to be presented 
at court. 



44 AN HOUR WITH 

As for Mr. Seligman, and the outcasts, we trust 
they will not allow themselves to suffer from that 
undue sensitiveness which is apt to mar the happi- 
ness of so many of their faith. 

If the proprietor of the Grand Union has made a 
mistake, he will be the heaviest sufferer himself, 
and the Hebrew famihes will have no difficulty in 
finding excellent quarters elsewhere and all the at- 
tention and civility that they are able to pay for. 

It is certainly not worth while to try the effects of 
civil rights law in regulating the relations between 
Israelites and hotel keepers, because no gentle- 
man has so little self-respect as to force his 
custom unnecessarily upon a host who does not want 
it; nor, indeed, is it possible by any law, however 
stringent, to settle questions like this, which can 
only be adjusted by the ordinary rules of trade. 

The dignified and sensible course for those who 
feel that they have been insulted at the Grand 
Union, on account of their race or religion is, to 
withdraw quietly, and in a body, to some establish- 
ment conducted on a more hberal and business-like 
plan. 

They may be sure that the American people de- 
test unjust and invidious distinction, especially when 
they are based upon differences of creed, and that 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 45 

they will always respect a people who respect them- 
selves. 

[Neiu York Tribune, June 23, 1877.] 

There is still a deep feeling of resentment among 
the Israelites of the city over the Hilton-Seligman 
affair. It had been supposed that a public meeting 
would be held, and the project was favorably re- 
garded by the Jews generally, and by many Chris- 
tians. 

A communication was addressed to W. C. Bryant, 
asking his co-operation in making the meeting a suc- 
cess. He replied expressing his disapproval of Judge 
Hilton's action, but advising that no public meeting 
should be held. The substance of his letter ad- 
dressed to Mr. Seligman is as follows : 

^' I have been conferred with on the subject of a 
pubhc meeting, to be held by those who are not 
Jews, to protest against the principles on which the 
Saratoga hotel, the other day, proceeded in your 
case. It really seems to me that there is no occa- 
sion for any other expression of public opinion in 
regard to the matter than that which is heard from 
the mouth of every one in all pubhc places. There 
is now, as I think, but one opinion, and that is de- 



46 AN HOUR WITH 

cidedly and even vehemently against the principles 
to which I refer. It is better, therefore, to let pub- 
he feeling do its own work, and put down, as it will 
effectually, the pitiful prejudice of which I have 
spoken. 

I am, dear sir, 

W. C. BRYANT." 

v 

A prominent German physician said to a Tri- 
bune reporter, ^'this is only a repetition of the per- 
secution of the Jews in different countries of Eu- 
rope one or two hundred years ago, and in Germany 
as late as forty years ago. I was born in Germany; 
my grandfather was compelled to wear a yellow 
cloth to show that he belonged to the Jewish nation. ^ 
He and his co-religionists used to be saluted by the 
ignorant populace with cries of "Hep," "Hep," (a 
contraction of " Hierosolyma est perdita,^^) Jerusa- 
lem is lost. 

It was these persecutions that brought the Selig- 
man's and other Israehtes to this country. Their 
long residence here has tended to attach them to it 
and its institutions, and make them lose their love 
for their native land. 

Since that time the tone and idea of the better 
class in Germany have greatly changed, and the 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 4Y 

very same people who cried ' ' Hep, " ' ^ Hep ' are now 
on excellent terms with their Jew countrymen. 

In 1849 Bismarck stated in Parliament that no 
German nobleman should be commanded by Jewish 
officers. His views have undergone a great change, 
and to-day he is an admirer of and respects the Isra- 
elites. To-day all the avenues of social and politi- 
cal life are open to the Jews, and they do honor to 
the country and people among whom they live. 
Look at Cremenieux, Gambetta in France, and Dis- 
raeli in England. What hotel in Germany, France 
or England do you suppose would close their doors 
against a Rothschild or a Bleichroder on account of 
their rehgious belief? yet Mr. Seligman, who occu- 
pies just as high a ground socially, has been ex- 
cluded on those grounds. 

This question of antipathy to the Israelites, which, 
for many centuries was prominent in Europe, 
is being brought to an issue, but in a modified 
form. It had to come up, and I am glad the subject 
is opened, because it will tend to correct errors on 
both sides. It is true there have been some guests 
of hotels at summer resorts who have not shown 
their fellow guests the consideration which might 
have been expected from them. But the educated 
Jews take special pains to be courteous and consid- 



48 AN HOUR WITH 

erate to all with whom they come in contact. It is 
these that will finally overcome all prejudice against 
their race. It is rather ridiculous in Judge Hilton 
now, in the nineteenth century, to attack a people 
who have survived thousands of years of persecu- 
tion, and to-day are successful in aU branches of 
business in all parts of the world. 

This is the first instance on record (since the Nine- 
teenth Amendment) where the proprietor of a hotel, 
of all men the most affable, refused to entertain a 
moneyed man, or, in fact, any man possessing the 
necessary wherewithal to settle his "little bill." 
The word ''hotel " is but a new and improved name 
for the old tavern or public house of our forefathers 
who provided accommodation for man and beast 
without regard to race or religion. 

The ' ' country hotel " is the loafing place of all the 
swell young men in the vicinity of the village. 

The improvident man who finds himself of a Sun- 
day evening without a stamp ma.y obtain one at the 
'' hotel " at the expense of five cents. 

Eailroad time tables, newspaper files and the di- 
rectory may be consulted at the ''hotel" free of 
charge. 

The landlord of a "hotel" is licensed to keep a 
public house; a private house requires no license. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 49 

Every saloon keeper in New York is licensed to 
keep a hotel, and is obliged to keep a certain num- 
ber of furnished rooms for the accommodation of 
any who may apply for lodgings. 

The American hotel is in every sense of the word 
*' public property." 

Every man who behaves himself and pays his 
bills, is entitled to the respect due a *^man;" race or 
religion, matter not, so long as he commits no of- 
fense against the law, every man, however poverty 
stricken, is a citizen of the United States and enti- 
tled to a voice in the election of her officers. 

The moneyed man is intrinsically of no more value 
to a community than his poorer countryman, voting 
to the same extent. 

To his wealth may be attributed his political in- 
fluence, for, to the extent of that wealth, he nego- 
tiates votes at his own terms. 

Our pilgrim forefathers, the corner-stone of this 
EepubHc, were refugees from a foreign shore, 
driven from home on account of their religious 
faith, settling in an unknown wilderness that they 
might worship God as they pleased. 

On the shores of Massachusetts they established 
their little colony, and with it established the equal 
rights of every denomination. 



50 AN HOUR WITH 

Practically, we are all refugees. 

The much boasted hospitality and freedom of the 
United States refute themselves, in the exclusion of 
Mr. Seligman, and the attempt to stay the tide of 
Chinese emigration to our shores. 

The exclusion of the Jews from the Grand Union, 
was not merely a matter of import to themselves, 
but a national affair. 

The press took up the cause of the Israelite, and 
from all parts of the United States the action was 
universally condemned. 

Doubtless Mr. Hilton has long since regrett^ed the 
policy of that movement. Eumor says that the 
Saratoga hotel affair has cost the princely dry 
goods house of Stewart a shrinkage in sales of ten 
milhon dollars annually. 

Nothing but the strenuous exertions of our liberal 
press restrained the Senate of the United States 
from making themselves, and the people whom they 
represent the laughing stock of all nations; from 
transposing the glorious principles for which so 
many of our ancestors sacrificed their lives into a 
miserable abortion of the word, ^^ Freedom," in 
their attempt to regulate the number of our Chinese 
brethren who should be allowed to settle on our 
hospitable (?) shores. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 51 

In the freedom of her press really lies the great 
ruhng power of our nation. 

By permission of the Christian Union I quote the 
following sermon by Henry Ward Beecher. 

JEW AND GENTILES 

"But when they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about 
the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. 
Actxix., 34. „.- 

This was a terrific tumult raised in Ephesus by a 
merchant. When an attempt was made on the 
part of those who were agrieved by the riot that 
took place to defend themselves by exposing their 
principles and their processes, the mob forbade them 
to speak. How far the world has grown since that 
time is shown by the fact that when in our day a 
merchant attempts to hold up to shame and dis- 
grace men that are unoffending, there is no riot and 
no mob, but for the space, not of two hours, but of 
two days (which in New York is an age for one 



* Sunday Evening, June 24 1877. Lesson : Rom. ix. Hymns 
(Plymouth Collection): Nos. 104, 725, 989. Reported expressly foi 
the Christian Union, by J. T. EUinwood. 



52 AN HOUR WITH 

thing to be of interest), the whole people have sym- 
pathized with those that are wronged. 

It is not my purpose to-night to make any per- 
sonal sermon. Certainly, if I had the disposition to 
do it, a fairer opportunity never could present itself. 
I have the pleasure of the acquaintance of the gen- 
tleman whose name has been the occasion of so 
much excitement — Mr. Seligman. I have summered 
with his family for several years. I am acquainted 
with him, with his honored wife, and with his sons 
and daughters ; and I have learned to respect and 
love them. During weeks and months I was with 
them at the Twin Mountain House ; and not only 
did they behave in a manner becoming Christian 
ladies and gentlemen, but they behaved in a manner 
that ought to put to shame many Christian ladies 
and gentlemen. They were my helpers ; and they 
were not only present at the Sunday services at the 
Twin Mountain House, but they were present at the 
daily prayer-meetings on week days, volunteering 
services of kindness. I learned to feel that they 
were my deacons, and that in the ministration of 
Christian service they were beyond the power of 
prejudice, and did not confine themselves to the lim- 
tations which might be supposed to be prescribed by 
their race. Therefore, when I heard of the unneces- 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 53 

sary offense that had been cast upon Mr. Sehgman, 
I felt that no other person could have been singled 
out that would have brought home to me the mjus- 
tice more sensibly than he. With this statement I 
dismiss the personal matter. 

There are about seven million Jews in existence 
in the nations of the earth. They are living in al- 
most every land under the sun. They excel all other 
people in being despised. There is not another race 
or people that is in such a sense a benefactor of the 
human race as they are, and have been. There 
is not another people under the sun that is treated 
so like despicable miscreants as they are, and have 
been. For two thousand years they have expe- 
rienced hatred and contempt and persecution. They 
are an extraordinary race by their faults, by their 
virtues, and by their long experience. They have 
been twined in the history of every nation, oriental 
or occidental, ancient or modern ; and yet they have 
never lost their race distinctions. They have min- 
gled but not mixed with the nations that held them. 

From the Hebrews the world has received a treas- 
ure of benefit such as no other people has ever con- 
ferred upon mankind ; and those things in which we 
count ourselves most advanced, and which we boast 
as being blessings which we are conferring upon the 



54: AN HOUR WITH 

nascent nations of our time, were derived as seed- 
corn from this notable people ; and we are but rais- 
ing harvests of that which they raised three thous- 
and years ago. 

" In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed " 

That was promised to Abraham, and it has been 
fulfilled to the letter ; for every civilized nation on 
the globe is to-day, if it would understand the 
source of its benefits, blessed in the descendants of 
Abraham. Those heroic people stand pre-eminent 
as the unrecognized benefactors of the human race. 
If any people ever lived whose faults might be con- 
doned in consideration of their invaluable service to 
religion and to civilization, it is the Hebrews. If 
any people ever had a full measure of every form 
and degree of injustice meted out to them, it is the 
Hebrews. 

Hapily, in all the world the moral sense of man- 
kind is checking the indignities and correcting the 
prejudices which for four thousand years have been 
raining upon the heads of this much- wronged peo- 
ple. Now and then a flash of the old fire breaks 
out, such as we have recently seen, but it is tran- 
sient, it is feeble, and it serves to show how weak the 
malign elements in civilization are, and how much 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 55 

generosity and justice are infused into the popular 
feelings. 

Let us look at the contributions which have been 
made to the world's stock in civilization by the He- 
brews. It may surprise some to be told that com- 
monwealth, as we understand it in republican gov- 
ernments, is unquestionably of the desert, and that 
our institutions sprang from the loins of Moses' 
mind ; but it is true that he reared in his retirement 
and relative obscurity, the pillars — or, at any rate, 
the foundations on which we are rearing the pillars 
and the superstructure. The commonwealth of the 
Israelites contained in it the seeds of all subsequent 
c ommonwealths . 

The people that most saturate themselves with 
the whole economy of the Old Testament is the people 
among whom popular liberty is most likely to be 
developed ; for, although the doctrines of the New 
Testament give to man in the ideal such an eleva- 
tion that wrong toward him becomes an indignity 
toward God, yet the working forms of political in- 
stitutions which he at the foundation of popular Ub 
erty and popular right are to be found in the Old 
Testament rather than in the New. An appeal to 
the people on all great questions of polity ; the edu- 
cating of the people to have a public sentiment about 



56 AN HOUR WITH 

their own affairs ; the attempt to conduct a govern- 
ment, whether by prophet, by priest, or by king, for 
the benefit of the people themselves — these funda- 
mental elements belonged, and I think belonged 
first to the Hebrew Commonwealth. The more one 
studies the genius of legislation in the earlier periods 
of the national existence of the Hebrews the more 
he will have reason to perceive that we are deriving, 
as it were, the very nourishment of our public life 
from those remote times, and that we are indebted 
to this people for those very things which make us 
able to despise anybody or anything. 

Closely allied to the organization of government, 
and indeed precedent to it, as the very condition of 
successful and continuous government, is the house- 
hold. Now, the family emerged from barbaric forms 
earlier among the Hebrews than among any other 
people, and passed into the condition which has ena- 
bled it to perpetuate itself. For, although according 
to the teaching of our Master, Moses permitted po- 
lygamy, it was only by sufferance and on conditions 
that would surely extinguish it, and that did extin- 
guish it. So it may be said that, in spite of the pa- 
triarchal example of early times and later times, the 
great body of common people among the Hebrews 
were brought up in the spirit of monogamy, and 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 67 

the household was constituted by the love of one 
man to one woman. In the rearing and governing 
bf a family of children the household was a great 
school of all virtue and all integrity. If there be 
one thing that has been striking in the economy of 
the Hebrews from the ancient day, it is their care 
of their children ; the instruction that they gave to 
them ; their guidance of them in their rising up and 
sitting down, their going out and coming in. Their 
great aim was to instruct their children in a knowl- 
edge of their own institutions ; in a knowledge of 
the history of their people ; and in the knowledge of 
those ordinances of God which had made that his- 
tory celebrated. On no other point was there so 
much urgency in the instruction of their children as 
on that of character ; and in no other nation were 
children ever reared with more care. That feature 
was continued down through all the mediaeval dark- 
ness, and is characteristic in Jewish households to 
this very hour. In intelligence, in home life, in 
purity, in exaltation of sentiment, and in extraordi- 
nary care in the teaching of children, there are not 
to be found in the palmiest communities of the best 
Christian households, those that surpass the best 
families of Jews at this time. We have borrowed 
their example, and are rearing our children after 



58 AN HOUR WITH 

the pattern and inspiration of the Jewish house- 
hold as it has existed from the days of Moses on- 
ward. 

I cannot fail to point out, too, how, in that orien- 
tal land, and in that early day, the virtue of indus- 
try, of personal independence, of work, was under- 
stood and enforced. During the time when Plato 
declared that in his ideal republic there should be no 
mechanics ; during that long intermediate period, 
when to be a working man was to be shut out from 
all hope of honor and elevation in society ; during 
the times when monarchy and aristocracy frowned 
upon labor ; clear down to the day when, contrary 
to the fundamental principles of our institutions and 
the design of our fathers, slavery in this land made 
work dishonorable, and was eating out our inner 
life of it ; from four thousand years ago down to 
this day — work has been honorable in the Jewish 
household ; and that motto, that proverb stands, 
which stood at that early period : ^^ He who brings 
his child up without a trade brings him up to be a 
thief." On that principle the children of the richest 
Jews in the highest station were taught how to 
maintain themselves by their own hands and by 
their own industry. The making of work honora- 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 59 

ble is one of the boons which God has given to the 
human race through this remarkable people. 

Then we are to take notice how in the Jewish na- 
tion, from the very earliest day, woman took that 
position to which she has been coming for two 
thousand years since, through the inspirations of 
Christianity. While all around them, in the barbaric 
East, woman was the degraded object of man's lust, 
or of his convenience as the drudge of the house- 
hold, at that very time the Jewish institutions were 
ministered to by priestesses ; by women of sin- 
gular virtue and sagacity and eminence. In Greece 
a woman was not even permitted to go to the door 
to greet her husband or son as he came from the 
battle-field. She was not allowed to know music 
or poetry or philosophy, if she would be virtuous. 
There were women in Greece who were educated to 
all the embellishments and arts of life ; education 
in Greece among women was given with a large 
hand, and they were educated in everything that we 
consider to-day, as most befitting the noblest women ; 
but alas! no woman was so instructed unless 
she was to be a courtesan. If a woman was 
to be a mother, and a woman honored for do- 
mestic virtue — she must be ignorant, must not 
even show her face in a pubHc assembly, and 



60 AN HOUR WITH 

she must not appear unveiled in the streets. But 
while such was the law in intellectual and artis- 
tic Greece, in Palestine the mother, the wife or the 
daughter with unshamed and unveiled face might 
look upon any man ; and if called to any function, 
there was no public sentiment and no law that pre- 
vented her assuming that function. Whatever a 
woman could do well, and was called of God by in- 
spirtion to do, that she was permitted to do ; and she 
stood honored by what she was. That invaluable 
contribution to humanity we derived from the early 
example of this great people. 

They also gave to the world, by their ancient 
economy, a religion whose genius was the develop- 
ment of manhood. In other words, they gave to 
the world an ethical religion, as distinguished from 
a worshipping and superstitious religion. Although 
the Jew made manifest every office of devotion and 
reverence, and although you might select from the 
Jewish writers saints as eminent in observances as 
any others; yet the distinctive peculiarity of rehgion 
among the Israelites was that it had a practical drift 
as regards the conduct of men. It did not expend 
itself in lyrics and prayers of worship. It descend- 
ed to the character of men, and sought first, and 
above all other faiths of that age, to develop man- 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 61 

hood. For the whole flow of that word ^^right- 
eousness " in the Old Testament is the equivalent of 
our word ^'manhood," in modern phrase, and seek- 
ing after righteousness was the distinctive peculiar- 
ity of the Hebrew religion. It bred a race of men 
who put into the building of themselves the attri- 
butes of truth, of justice, of humanity, of morali- 
ty, of gentleness and of humility. It reared men who 
had no equals, and with whom there was nothing 
that could compare in their own time. The Crreeks 
built better temples than the Hebrews; but though 
the Hebrew hand never carved a marble, it did better 
— it carved men. While the Greeks were so corrupt 
in social matters that they had not moral sense 
enough to hold the State together; while their 
national life was perpetually breaking down under 
the stress of human nature for lack of manly charac- 
ter; while they were making wondrous pictures; 
while they were building world-renowned temples; 
while they were carving heroes in gold and ivory than 
which the world never saw greater, and will never see 
greater; while they were making a simulacrum of 
mankind, the Hebrews were making mankind — 
they were making man. Such was the very drift of 
their rehgion. And the apostle, having received the 
culture of Greece at the feet of his great teacher, 



62 AN HOUR WITH 

and knowing what it meant, declared that his 
brethren sought after righteousness, but that they 
did not well understand what were the instruments 
by which the higher development of manhood was to 
be attained. They sought to develop righteousness 
by institutions; but Paul says that no race of people 
ever did or ever will, merely by institutions, develop 
the highest form of character. That must be done 
by following a Hving example under a heroic inspi- 
ration. 

Christ is the law. That is, He undertook to do 
that which the whole law aimod to do, but which* 
through the weakness of the flesh, it could not do. 
He came making virtue luminous, and interpreting 
to mankind so much of the divine disposition as can 
possibly be shown in the human flesh, by making 
possible to men that which a man longs, prays, 
yearns, sighs to be, and then helping them to come 
to it — namely, to '^a perfect man" ; to *Hhe meas- 
ure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." But 
this Jewish people set the example, by their religion, 
which led men to seek manhood as the chief thing 
under all circumstances — a larger, broader, nobler, 
diviner manhood than ever the Gentiles dreamed of. 

The moral sense of mankind, the vivid conception 
of right and wrong among men, sprang from the 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 63 

training of the Jews. Hunger and thirst after 
righteousness has been characteristic of the Jew 
from an early age ; and we have derived an impulse 
in that direction from his writings and from his ex- 
ample. The G-reek gave to the world aesthetic gifts. 
Whatever was exquisite in beauty, whatever was 
fine in symmetry, whatever was rare in proportion, 
whatever was harmonious in art, the Greek longed 
for ; but he never longed for the good. The Jew 
was deficient in the perception of the beautiful as it 
was developed in matter ; but his soul was all aflame 
with the conception of the beautiful as it was devel- 
oped m the mind ; and he sought to create in man 
inwardly by the spirit that which the Greeks sought 
to create in him outwardly by the flesh. 

"As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul 
after Thee, O God." 

In all the Hterature of the globe you cannot find 
another such aspiration ; and this is but one of ten 
thousand of the breathings of the Jewish mind of 
its yearning after the divine. 

The moral hterature, too, which has come from 
this people, has been a treasure to the world. The 
human race has fed on Homer, on Plato, on Aris- 
totle, on Seneca, on Cicero^ and in the far Orient on 



64 AN HOUR WITH 

one or two notable authors ; but nowhere has there 
been such food for the inner man as in the wisdom 
of Solomon, in the lyrics of David and his school, 
and in the cry of those great solitary statesmen, the 
Hebrew prophets, who were the masters of states- 
manship in the age in which they lived. 

But to us and to all Christendom the Hebrew 
should be held sacred for that gift without money 
and without price, our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. ^' Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
came " is a sentence that ought to make the Israel- 
ites sacred to us from association and from history, 
if from nothing else. The ideal man of the ages 
was Jesus Christ. The likeness of so much of the 
divine nature as can dwell in human flesh was 
Jesus Christ. The grandest interpreter of the Old 
Testament Scripture was Jesus Christ. The Sermon 
on the Mount is but an epitome of the great truths 
which had been vnrought out in the experience and 
observation of the thousands of years of God's peo- 
ple preceding. Jesus Christ gathered them together 
and brought them as grain in a granary into the 
Sermon on the Mount ; but they grew in a thousand 
fields dispersed through the ages. To be sure, He 
made them more noble by insphering them in a 
spiritual hght, and shoving what their outcome 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 65 

was, and was to be ; but they were the Old Testa- 
ment economies ; and the Sermon on the Mount, 
into which they were gathered, comes to us not 
simply from Jesus Christ, but from His ancestors 
throughout all the period of the Jewish common- 
wealth. 

But if one turns from moral functions to secular, 
it may be said that no people ever taught the world 
such a lesson of endurance, of indestructible man- 
hood, under every conceivable oppression and wrong, 
as the Jews have. No abuse that can be heaped 
upon man has been spared from the head of this 
persecuted people. From the days of the Eoman 
emperors they have been objects of cruelty in every 
part of the civilized world. ,They have everywhere 
been denied citizenship. /Everywhere they have 
been denied not only equ^ rights, but the common- 
est rights of humanity. /They have been obliged to 
clothe themselves so t^t their very garments were a 
badge of contempt./ They have been shut up in 
certain territories. /They have been fleeced, cheated, 
persecuted with the cruelest instruments of wrong 
by those who sought to wrest from them their sup- 
posed riches. They have been emptied out of 
countries where they had taken up their abode. For 
instance, from Spain seventy thousand famihes 



66 AN HOUR WITH 

were driven suddenly into exile, not more than one- 
fifth of them surviving. That cruel exodus was 
repeated time and time again in various nations 
from hundred years to hundred years, under the op- 
pressions of superstitious peoples. Did a plague 
break out in Hungary ? The Jews had poisoned the 
people^ and a mob wreaked vengeance upon their 
households. Was there black death in Germany ? 
The whole country was in cruel riot to avenge their 
sufferings on the persecuted Jews. 

But this remarkable race, though fined, robbed, 
treated with the utmost injustice and cruelty, and 
kicked out from from their abiding place again and 
again, could not be destroyed. Hope sprang im- 
mortal in their soul. With tenacity, with tough- 
ness, with an ineradicable courage, with a persist- 
ence in their own faith, and with a trust in their 
own national stock, they have marched through I 
know not how many generations of persecution. 
The legend of '^The Wandering Jew" is true — not 
of any one person, but of a people. It was the 
nation of the Jews that was the ^' Wandering Jew; " 
and all that has ever been dreamed by poets or 
invented by the imagination of the miseries of the 
^^ Wandering Jew" has been fulfilled more than 
fourfold upon the head of this great and wonderful 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 67 

race. They have never sat down in discouragement, 
but have repaired again and again and again their 
wasted fortunes, and erected schools and syna- 
gogues, and amassed property, and served the State, 
and wrought for manhood. It has been the very 
genius of the Hebrew people to work for the wel- 
fare of mankind by working for their own welfare. 
All their struggles for existence, and all their con- 
flicts for equal rights, have done much to promote 
that spirit of toleration which is found throughout 
the civilized nations of the globe. They fought the 
battle of liberty in fighting for their own right to 
live. The conflict in England' by which the dis- 
franchised Jews were at last permitted to have a 
name, and to have citizenship, and the rights of a 
citizen under the Government, was one of the most 
enlightening and strengthening of all the moral 
movements in your time and mine. And that which 
took place in England took place in Germany, in 
Holland, in Spain, in Portugal, in France, in Switz- 
erland, in Hungary, and in Austria generally. The 
Jews, everywhere persecuted, everywhere bruised 
and crushed in the root, everywhere disbranched, 
everywhere defoliated, everywhere robbed of the 
their precious fruit, have sprung to life again hke 
the mulberry tree, which is fed upon and plucked by 



68 AN HOUR WITH 

the silk-weaving worm, but which, though stripped 
of one crop of leaves, produces another and another. 
Th extraordinary people have set an example to 
humanity of indomitable courage in the endurance 
of whatever men can put upon them and yet living 
and thriving. If ever a race was heroic this race 
has been. 

In its long and dreary way the indomitable spirit 
of this great people has not flinched. They have 
held fast to their faith. When for the sake of saving 
themselves they were outwardly obliged to conform 
to a cruel reigning Christianity, interiorily, in the 
church, in the sanctuary of their own households, 
they were faithful to the religion of their fathers. 
And, not content with simply their own advance- 
ment, they have in almost every age and in almost 
every country added to the common stock of knowl- 
edge and civilization, and that under all the unfa- 
vorable conditions of which I have spoken. The 
Jewish philosophers have stood second to none. 
The Jewish statesmen have been among the most 
eminent in the world. Jewish teachers, and schol- 
ars, and literary men, and scientists, and artists 
have ranked with the ablest in Europe, and they do 
to-day. It will not do to say that they are the 
genius of intelligence and administration in Europe ; 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW 69 

« 

but I may venture to say that they are second to no 
others in these respects. To-day, in music, in paint- 
ing, in histrionic art, in finance, and in generalship, 
the Hebrews are equal to any among the most 
favored, whether in Europe or in America. Consid- 
ering their opportunities, they are certainly giving 
more genius to statesmanship, and administration, 
and finance than any other people. 

What have they, then, of which they need be 
ashamed, in a Christian repubhc where all men are 
declared to be free and equal ? Of what has this 
oriental nation to be ashamed in a country where 
Christianity has breathed a spirit of manhood ? Is 
it that they are excessively industrious ? Let the 
Yankee cast the first stone. Is it that they are in- 
ordinately keen in bargaining? Have they ever 
stolen ten miUions of dollars at a pinch from a city ? 
Are our courts bailing out Jews, or compromising 
with Jews ? Are there Jews lying in our jails, and 
waiting for mercy, and dispossessing themselves 
slowly of the enormous wealth which they have 
stolen ? You cannot find one criminal jew in the 
whole catalogue. It is said that the jews are crafty 
and cunning, and sometimes dishonest, in their deal- 
ings. Ah ! what a phenomenon dishonesty must be 
in New York ! Do they not pay their debts when it 



70 AN HOUR WITH 

• 

is inconvenient? Hear it, ye Yankees! Was 
there ever any such thing known on the face of the 
earth before? Is it true that they hve on tha!^ 
which you throw away ? What a miscreant a man 
must be that is so closely economical ! Is it true 
that they can make money where you go to bank- 
ruptcy ? Shame on you ! — not on them. Is it true 
that they have among them many who are untrust- 
worthy ? I suppose they must be the only people on 
God's earth, any portion of whom are not trust- 
worthy ! Now, I suppose there are Jews that 
are sometimes tempted of the devil ; I suppose 
there are crafty men among the Jews ; but I be- 
lieve that for their numbers there are fewer such 
men among them than among us, and that of men 
of high and honorable dealing with enormous inte- 
rests at stake, of trustworthy men in the administra- 
tion of affairs, they have more in proportion to their 
numbers than our own or any other race-stock, in 
this or any other land. 

If, then, you look upon their genius, upon their 
antiquity, upon their early and continuing services, 
upon the legacy which they have given to the Gen- 
tile world, upon their fidelity to their faith, upon 
their heroism, upon their industry, upon their en- 
terprise and upon their substantial integrity, they 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 71 

are of all people under the sun the last that 
should be msulted, either by retail or by whole- 
sale. And if in all the world you had sought for 
a place in which to base an insult for mere 
race you could not have found another where 
it would have been so disreputable as in America, 
where the race spirit is opposed to our fundamental 
interpretation of rehgion not only, but of morahty 
and of civic economy. But of all places in America 
where society attempts to keep its garments free 
from contact with the vulgar people, think of a 
hotel; and of all hotels a thousand-room hotel in 
Saratoga! Listen, ye astonished people; where 
for fifty years North and South and East and West 
have come together, and been instructed, sometimes 
by ministers and sometimes by Morriseys, and 
where every form of pleasurable vice, every sort of 
amusement, everything that would draw custom, 
has been common — there, in Saratoga, the Corinth 
of America, in a hotel designed to. accommodate 
two thousand people, it seems society is so developed 
that it will not consent to go unless everybody that 
comes is fit to associate with men who made their 
money yesterday, or a few years ago, selling codfish! 
What is society in America? It is a disposition to be 
independent. The power of a man to take care of him- 



72 AN HOUR WITH 

self and his family by his own wit and industry — that 
makes a man respectable in so far as economies is 
concerned; and it is not in good taste for a man 
that inherits all his money, and does not earn a dol- 
lar himself, to reproach men who have not a dollar 
that they did not earn themselves. Of all people in 
creation the Hebrews least deserve the ban, the 
finger of scorn, the ostracism, of polite society. 
The trouble is, men have not been to school enough 
to learn the decency which belongs to the instruction 
of the Jews, to their institutions, and to their fun- 
damental ideas of manhood and rehgion. 

Are these people aiding or are they quenching 
civilization in our land? Are they bearing their part 
in the advance of knowledge in America? Are they 
educating their children? Are they publishing books 
and newspapers? Are they opening synagogues? 
Are they the corrupters of morality? Is it in the 
Jewish family that the monstrous spawn is bred 
that degrades Christian households? It was left for 
Christian reformers to unloose the bands and throw 
open the door to every foul solicitation and every 
base temptation that plays about every household 
in the land. Are the Jews remiss in rearing their 
children in those elements of education and training 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. Y3 

which go to make a character distinguished for vir- 
tue, integrity and manhood? 

Are they in our poor-houses? In which? Are 
they in our jails? Where? Are they in our re- 
formatories? Point them out. Do their women 
defile our street? You cannot find another people 
in America among whom the social virtues are 
more rigorously taught and observed than among 
the Israelites. Exceptions there are, but their char- 
acteristics are such as I have represented them to 
be. They are a temperate people, and we are a 
drunken people. They are a virtuous people, and 
we largely tend to be a lascivious people. They are 
a people excessively careful of their children, and 
there is a great laxity among us in the education of 
the household. We may well take lessons of them. 
They were the schoolmasters of our fathers, and we 
may well go to school to the same masters. 

They are becoming land owners in America, by 
reason of the liberty and toleration which reign 
here ; and as land owners those very peculiarities 
which made them offensive at other times are drop- 
ping away from them. There can be no question 
that the Jewish race stock, if it be suffered in the 
largest spirit of true Christianity to have its way, 
will merge with the American stock. During all the 



74 AN HOUR WITH 

two thousand years in which the Jews have been 
wanderers on the globe, persecuted and despised, 
there has been no inducement for them to invest 
their money in landed estates, and their property has 
been of a movable kind ; but they are now buying 
land in America ; and I tell you the land that a peo- 
ple stand on forms them more than they form the 
land by their agriculture ; and more among us than 
anywhere else they become citizens. They come 
here to live and stay ; and their children will inter- 
marry with ours ; their blood will flow into the com- 
mon stream with ours ; and if their virtues might be 
incorporated with ours it would be of unspeakable 
advantage to us. Where else, then, is prejudice 
against them so culpable as in om* land? 

Let me say, in closing, that our brethren and fel- 
low-citizens, the Jews, should not suffer themselves 
to be too much exercised by the petty shghts or 
even public insults that are heaped upon them. A 
hero may be annoyed by a mosquitto; but to put on 
his whole armor and call on all his followers to join 
him in making war on an insect would be beneath 
his dignity; and I think that for our friends, the 
Jews, to notice in any special manner this indignity 
which they have received will be to place too much 
importance upon it. I trust, therefore, that there will 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. Y5 

be no public assemblies called, no resolutions passed, 
no more unfortunate letters written, no recrimina- 
tions, no personalities. We are fed to death with 
such things as these, until the people have come to 
have almost a butcher's appetite. So let us banish, 
and let us exhort those whom we are proud to call 
our fellow-citizens to banish, wrath; and may they 
recognize that their position, their honors, all things 
that are sacred to them, are in this country such as 
they shall themselves determine them to be. May 
they understand that under this government there is 
no place to which they may aspire — no sphere of 
finance, no walk in literature, no avenue to honor, no 
field of art or science — which is shut to them. The 
heaven above their head is not more free to every one 
of them than all the ways of men in this land. Let 
them be composed, and not be disturbed by injuries 
which are but the faintest echoes of the wrongs 
which were inflicted on their fathers through 
unnumbered generations. If their fathers, when 
the foot of tyranny was placed upon their necks, 
when they were treated to the flame and the 
cord and the ax, when they tasted the luxury of 
the dungeon, when they were pelted with all 
manner of obloquy, when they were driven hither 
and thither and were wanderers up and down the 



^6 AN HOUR WITH 

earth, in patience possess themselves, and main- 
tained their economy, their genius, I am sure their 
descendants will be able, under this shght breath, 
this white frost, this momentary flash of insult, to 
maintain their genius, their households, their social 
customs, their citizenship, and the honors which 
their fathers achieved, and of which they are show- 
ing themselves not to be unworthy in this nation 
and in our time. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. Y7 



REVIVING A PREJUDICE. 

JEWISH PATRONAGE KOT WELCOMED AT MAKHATTAlif 
BEACH— MR. CORBIN'S DENUKCIATIOK — THE DISTINC- 
TIONS OF A PAST SARATOGA SEASON REMADE. 

{From the New York Herald, July 22, 1879.) 

The war against the Jews which was carried on 
at Saratoga two years ago is apparently to be re- 
vived at Coney Island. This time it is in a quarter 
where the Jewish residents of New York City are 
particularly aimed at. Several days ago a rumor 
was circulated to the effect that Austin Corbin, the 
president of the Manhattan Beach Company, had 
taken an open stand against admitting Jews to the 
beach or hotel. This report was on Sunday 
strengthened by a statement from Mr. P. S. Gil- 
more, the leader of the Manhattan Beach band, who 
said that Mr. Corbin told him he was going to op- 
pose the Jews, and that he would rather ''sink'' 
the two millions invested in the railway and hotel 
than have a single Israelite take advantage of its 
attractions. A ^representative of the Herald 



Y8 AN HOUR WITH 

called upon Mr. Corbin at his banking establishment 
in the new Trinity building, No. 115 Broadway, yes- 
terday, to ascertain what foundation there was for 
these most extraordinary rumors. Mr. Corbin at 
first exhibited some timidity about talking on the 
subject, but finally invited the reporter into his pri- 
vate office, where he was joined by his brother and 
partner, Daniel C. Corbin. 

THEY EXPECT TOO MUCH. 

^' You see," he began, ^^I don't want to speak too 
strongly, as it might be mistaken for something en- 
tirely different from its intended sense. Personally 
I am opposed to Jews. They are a pretentious 
class who expect three times as much for their 
money as other people. They give us more trouble 
on our road and in our hotel than we can stand. 
Another thing is that they are driving away the 
class of people who are beginning to make Coney 
Island the most fashionable and magnificent water- 
ing place in the world." 

'' Of course, this must affect business?" 
*^ Why, they are hurting us in every way, and we 
do not want them. We cannot bring the highest so- 
cial element to Manhattan Beach if the Jews persist 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. Y9 

in coming. They won't associate with Jews, and 
that's all there is about it." 

''Do you intend to make an open stand against 
them?" 

'' Yes, I do. They are contemptible as a class, and 
I never knew but one ' white ' Jew in my life. The 
rest I found were not safe people to deal with in 
business. Now, I feel pretty warm over this mat- 
ter, and I will write a statement which you can 
publish." 



Mr. Corbin sat dovni at his desk and wrote a few 
sentences on a slip of paper as follows: 

'•We do not like the Jews as a class. There are 
some well behaved people among them, but as a rule 
they make themselves offensive to the kind of peo- 
ple who principally patronize our road and hotel, and 
I am satisfied we should be better off without than 
with their custom." 

"There," said he, handing the statement to the 
reporter, "that is my opinion, and I am prepared to 
follow up the matter. It is a question that has to 
be handled without gloves. It stands this way: — 
We must have a good place for society to patronize. 



80 AN HOUR WITH 

I say that we cannot do so and have Jews. They 
are a detestable and vulgar people. What do you 
say, eh, Dan?" 

This last sentence was addressed to his brother, 
Mr. Daniel Corbin, who had taken an active part in 
the conversation. ^^Dan" said, with great empha- 
sis, '"Vulgar? I can only find one term for them, 
and that is nasty. It describes the Jews perfectly.'' 

Mr. Austin Corbin then spoke warmly of the loss 
sustained by the Manhatan Beach Company in con- 
sequence of Israelitish patronage. 

''Do you mean, Mr. Corbin, that the presence of 
Jews attracts the element of ruffianism?" asked the 
reporter: 

"Not always. But the thing is this. The Jews 
drive off the people whose places are filled by a less 
particular class. The latter are not rich enough to 
have any preference in the matter. Even they, in 
my opinion, bear with them only because they can't 
help it. It is not the Jew's rehgion I object to; it is 
the offensiveness which they possess as a sect or na- 
tionality. I would not oppose any man because of 
his creed. " 

"Will the other members of the Manhattan 
Beach Company support you in your position?" 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 81 

*'I expect them to. They know just as much 
about it as I do, and no reasonable man can deny- 
that the Jews will creep in a place just as it is about 
to become a grand success and spoil everything. 
They are not wanted at the beach, and that set- 
tles it." 

'^Have you spoken to any other members about 
it?" 

^' No; but I guess they know my opinions." 

Mr. Corbin rose from the chair he had been sit- 
ting in and paced the floor. ^^ I'll tell you," said he, 
running his fingers through his hair, *' if I had had 
my way and there was no one to consult in the mat- 
ter but myself, I would have stopped the Jews from 
coming long ago. You just publish my statement. 
It covers the whole ground, and I mean every word 
of it." 

Mr. Corbin concluded the conversation by telling 
the reporter to be sure and not give the impression 
that he was warring against the Jewish religion, but 
he stigmatized the Jews as having no place in first- 
class society. 

EeaUy this matter should have been attended to 
before. 



82 AN HOUR WITH 

From the time that Coney Island was first opened 
to the pubhc, the Jews have fallen into the habit of 
patronizing that resort, until at last they have lost 
all temerity in the matter, and with bare-faced im- 
pudence flock to the island by thousands necessita- 
ting the interference of the select patrons of the 
place. 

The Jews have been treated too leniently by those 
pecuniarily interested in this great summer resort, 
and have been led to think that they have an equal 
right at the place with the Irish, Negro, and Chinese 
element which gathers there. 

"Personally," Mr. Corbin objects to the Jews; 
not on account of their rehous behef . 

Mr. Hilton was attacked on these grounds, and 
the proprietor of the Manhattan specially emphasizes 
the fact, that it is not on account of religious differ- 
ence in opinion that he objects to their patronizing 
his hotel. 

'' They give us more trouble than we can stand." 

Too true. They overcrowd the railroad trains of 
the company, monopolizing three-fourths of the ac- 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 83 

commodations to the exclusion of roughs, beats, 
gamblers, and roues of refinement, who might 
wish to travel by the Manhattan route. 

They fill the dining-rooms, piazzas and apartments 
of the hotel, causing the cashiers and waiters an im- 
mense amount of trouble in making change. Verily 
the anxiety caused by this people is greater than 
the proprietor of any hotel could be expected to bear. 

''They are driving away the class of people who 
are beginning to make Coney Island the most fash- 
ionable and aristocratic watering place in the world. " 

Are they? 

Mr. Corbin must have indulged in a flight into 
the regions of imagination and romance when he 
let sHp this remark. You cannot drive from Coney 
Island, nor from any other place, that which has 
never been there. 

The proprietor of the Manhattan confounds the 
words *' aristocratic," and '^ popular" in his re- 
marks to the HeraWs representative. Coney Is- 
land can never be an established resort for the 
aristocratic and select community of New York 



84 AN HOUR WITH 

for the simple reason that it is too crowded. People 
who leave the city for a season of rest will not go 
to Manhattan Beach to find it, such action would 
be like "jumping from the frying-pan into the 
fire." Of course there a great many refined and ed- 
ucated people who run down for a Sunday perhaps, 
to visit, out of curiosity the spot were every race 
and type of people, which our country boasts, is 
represented. 

Doubtless, also, a great many who are unable on 
account of business, to leave the dust and heat of 
the city, visit the island for a day or two, but 
they do not, and never will make Coney Island a 
permanent resort; rather a summer pic^nic ground, 
a Sunday beer garden. 

The higher class of the Jews would not settle 
their families there for the summer season on any 
conditions. 

Call it a popular resort — right! 

An aristocratic one — bosh! 

'^ They are contemptible as a class. I never knew 
lt>ut one white Jew in my life." 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 85 

What beautiful originality of thought from the 
backwoods^ we find in this remark. 

In "Eoughingit" by Mark Twain this expression 
'^ white" is used in reference to a square, honor- 
able, man. Mr. Corbin has never seen but one hon- 
orable man among the Jewish people. 

This allegation may be answered by an argument 
confined in a nut shell. ^^ There are none so blind 
as those who won't see." 

'*They area 'detestable' and vulgar people, Eh! 
Dan." 

'^ Vulgar! I can find only one term for them, and 
that is — 'Nasty.'" Let us look into the definitions 
of the word ''nasty." Vile, loathsome, dirty — this 
is Mr. Corbin's opinion of the Jew. 

What a refined and elegant simplicity of thought 
and expression is arrayed for our inspection in 
the above. What wealth of thought matter; years 
of the most brilliant education; and rays from the 
brightest talent are concentrated in that remark — 
"the nasty Jew." 



86 AN HOUR WITH 

Now we have at the island a hotel where the 
^* refined, educated, and aristocratic" denizens of 
New York may not only find the best of accommo- 
dations without the neighborhood of the ^^ nasty 
Jew," but they may also (free of extra charge) re- 
joice in the companionship and sociability of a re- 
fined, educated and aristocratic proprietor, who is 
not '^ nasty," but who occupies a station in ^^ so- 
ciety " equal to their own. 

Doubtless the exodus of New York *' society" to 
the Manhattan will commence immediately. 

Mr. Corbin ^^felt pretty warm over the matter," 
and wrote the following ^^ statement for pubhca- 
tion": '^ We do not hke the Jews as a class. There 
are some well behaved people among them, but as a 
rule they make themselves offensive to the kind of 
people who patronize our road and hotel, and I am 
satisfied that we should be better off without than 
with their custom." 

There are just two lines of honorable action open 
before the Manhattan Beach Company. One is to 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 87 

retract their expressions on the Jews with a full 
and ample apology for the same. 

The other alternative is to openly array themselves 
against the Hebrew element, and to refuse accom- 
modations to any and all representatives of that ele- 
ment. 

Otherwise, their '^statement" takes the form 
of gratuitous insult, totally uncalled for. An out- 
rage upon humanity and decency. 

If there is an inch of backbone to be found among 
the members of the corporation, they will come 
manfully to the front and exclude (if it is possible) 
the Jews from their hotel. They will openly declare 
war against the Israelite and ''fight it out on this 
line if it takes all summer." 

Otherwise, their ''statement" is virtually but a 
contemptible, cowardly, insinuation and should be 
treated as such. 

If the Jews, under this insult, sit quietly down or 
slink sullenly hke a whipped cur into a corner with- 
out a thought of retaliation, it is their own con- 



88 AN HOUR WITH 

cern, not mine, but let them bear in mind that the 
*^Lord helps only those who help themselves." 

ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 

Our American college graduate enters active life 
fully impressed with the idea that the ways of the 
world with which he is not conversant are not 
worth knowing; arrives at the conclusion that he is 
the predestined lever by which the world is to be 
overturned, and the old and well-worn highways of 
creation relaid upon a new and improved plan. 

We find him in all fines of business and all pro- 
fessions. Unfortunately he is unable to obtain the 
necessary lever purchase, and is obliged to refinquish 
his cherished plans. 

This calls to mind an instance of a young man 
who had devoted his early fife to the study of a 
profession. 

This young man settled and displayed an elaborate 
sign in a prominent city. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 89 

Unhappily the world failed to appreciate his 
genius and at last accounts he was handhng the 
reins on a horse-car route. 

The Hebrew, from his start in hfe, recognizes the 
fact that he has everything to learn. 

That he will be entitled to an active place in his 
business community, only when he has accom- 
plished something; that he will be respected by 
business men when he has shown himself worthy 
of such respect. Not before. 

Poverty is a blessing to him. It matters not if he 
enters business hfe behind a plate-glass showcase or 
starts from the humble dry-goods box, the will and 
determination are there just the same. He buckles 
doggedly to his work, keeping the coveted round in' 
the ladder of ambition always in view; advancing, 
not with a grand dash and flourish of trumpets, but 
slowly, steadily and surely; until at last, after pa- 
tient waiting and working, he finds the longed-for 
round within his grasp. 

Is he satisfied? Does he throw aside his cares and 



90 AN HOUR WITH 

retire to enjoy the fruits of his industry and perse- 
verance? No! He chngs firmly to his precious 
round and gazes earnestly above him. 

There, towering before him, stretches an endless 
ladder, leagues and leagues beyond the reach of his 
eye. 

He can distinguish the marks of his comrades in 
the struggle of life, decorating the rounds where 
they ceased their upward journey. 

How small and insignificant his place appears! 

The position which once seemed so enviable now 
only serves to enhance his ambition. 

The position which once seemed almost unattain- 
able now dwindles into insignificance as he looks 
above him and reads the names of those who have 
preceded him. He casts a glance below, where 
countless and almost invisible millions are struggling 
for a place. Wearily he gathers up his burden and 
presses on. 

Perchance he has grown old and his advance is 
slower, but the spirit of perseverance still reigns 
supreme. Boldly he presses forward to the end. 



THE AMERICAN HEBREW. 91 

Of the ladder? No! but to the end of his own 
short hf e. The point beyond which no man's ambi- 
tion passes. 

To the ladder of ambition there is no end; like 
the boundless horizon, it stretches away into the 
dim future, and no man can hope to reach the 
finish. But our hero has accomplished something. 

He has left his mark among the highest. 

There it shines, a star of hope and encouragement 
to struggling mortals below. /y 

And there it shall remain until the end of all 
things envelopes ambition in its mysterious folds. 

FINIS. 



^s. 



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